


In The Dark

by DGCatAniSiri



Category: Jade Empire
Genre: Dirge - Freeform, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-26
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-09-12 08:33:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9064309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DGCatAniSiri/pseuds/DGCatAniSiri
Summary: Sky and Ming speak before returning to the Palace, after the battle in the Land of Howling Spirits.





	

The Land of Howling Spirits was unnaturally quiet. Ming knew that it was because they had defeated an army – the fighting had sent everything else into dormancy, scared away the few living creatures that lived in the mountains, disrupted any nearby spirits who were close to forming. 

This was the calm. And, though this place had weathered the storm, Ming knew better than to assume that the storm had passed. Sun Li was still out there, waiting for their final confrontation. 

There was no way for this to end but in blood.

Kang was busy readying the Marvelous Dragonfly for its journey back to the Imperial Palace. The others were off doing what they needed – prayer to the gods, meditation, last minute examination of weapons, whatever they needed to.

But Ming had to walk the halls of Dirge’s temple. It was a place that, had Li’s machinations not interfered, he would have grown up in. This was what was meant to be his home.

He was a stranger to it.

He walked the halls, and none of the inscriptions or images or statues meant anything to him. He knew they should, that there was a history that had been important to the Spirit Monk order. But he’d never know it, not without extensive searching of the temple. And there was no time for that. Even if there were, he easily could see that with all the history here, buried and stripped away by Sun Hai’s men twenty years ago, he could spend the rest of his life looking for things of the Spirit Monk order and not even scratch the surface.

Ming found himself back in the central chamber, where the Water Dragon’s heart had once rested. There was beauty here, he could see. Once, this had been a place of worship and communion. A place where the Spirit Monks had gathered, had spoken, with each other and with the Water Dragon. Had released spirits to the Great Wheel, for them to take their place and reincarnate.

And now it was ruins and rubble. 

Despite his focus on the skeletal remains of the place he should have called home, he heard the sound of sandals on stone. He turned to see Sky, standing in the doorway. 

“I... thought you might want to talk. About... about the Lotus Assassins,” he said.

Truth to tell, Ming had much forgotten about what had occurred earlier in this room. Sky had sent a signal to the Lotus Assassins and Death’s Hand, drawing them in. Sky had revealed that the Lotus Assassins had come to him, offering to bring his daughter back to life in exchange for his betrayal of Ming and his allies. Though Sky had told them he would, he’d meant it purely as a ruse, something to allow the Assassins the mistaken belief that they’d turned one of Ming’s closest allies.

“I’m not sure it’s necessary, Sky. When it mattered, you did the right thing. Do you expect me to harbor a grudge for you being tempted?”

Sky approached Ming, looking awkward and uncomfortable – the weight of even contemplating betrayal of his friends, of his lover, didn’t sit well for him. “Temptation is one thing, but... I kept this from all of you. I kept it hidden, even after we... after we became more than I thought I’d ever be with another person after all this time. I didn’t even tell you about it when the army came marching on us. I kept it hidden until virtually the last moment. The secrecy...”

“Sky. After what Master Li... What Sun Li did, throughout my life... I recognize why you would think that keeping a secret from me would leave me questioning whether I could trust you.” Learning that an entire life of believing that Master Li was training him, was the closest thing Ming had to a father... It certainly was a betrayal. Yet when he compared what Sky had done, the ‘betrayal’ didn’t even come close. “You were silent because you thought the Assassins had approached the others. I can understand why. We all have our temptations, the things that would draw us from what’s right. You didn’t give in to them. You gave us an advantage in the fight. I can’t be mad at you for that.”

The look on Sky’s face was pure adoration. “How can you be so forgiving? I don’t know if I could be as such in your place. If I’d been weaker... If my daughter’s death had been fresher in my mind... I know that you’re right, that it matters what I did, not what I might have done, but... I know how close I came to betraying you. And the thought... It will haunt me.”

Ming pulled close to Sky, pressing his forehead to his lover’s own, giving him a quick and gentle kiss. “Sky. You see what you might have done as a betrayal. After what Sun Li has done, the lives lost because he was tempted with power beyond his station, I see only what you did. Which was give me the opportunity to defeat Death’s Hand. And, more importantly, the strength to know I could. You kept a secret, yes, but this was for the right reasons, for the protection of others. You hiding this wasn’t from a desire to hold it over the heads of the others, to say that your motives were more pure than theirs.” Again, Ming kissed Sky, holding it, and feeling Sky return it as he wrapped his hands around Ming’s waist. “That is what I know. That you are a good man at heart, one who acted for the sake of others, and not himself.”

Sky was quiet for a moment, though there was a gentle smile on his face, indicating to Ming that his words were being heard. “You are incredible, you know that, right?” 

They held each other for several long moments, and in that time, Ming realized that the calm, the absence of the ghosts of Dirge, was not due to the battle. For this moment, the quiet, the calm... It was due to the fact that things were right, or at least on their way to becoming that way once more. 

The Spirit Monk order that had given birth to him was gone. Yet with Sky at his side, Ming felt like, once Sun Li was defeated, he could make this right. No matter what, he wouldn’t have to do it alone. He would always have Sky. 

They lingered another few moments, but eventually, Sky pulled back. “We should probably head for the Flyer. Kang has probably finished his adjustments to it by now, and the sooner we get to the Palace, the sooner we deal with your former master.”

“And what happens then?”

“Are you asking me to tell the future?”

“I’m going to insist,” Ming said with a smirk, recalling their conversation before leaving for the Imperial Palace the first time.

Recognizing the words, Sky smiled. “I would guess, then, that we’re going to defeat your former master, and quite soundly. After that... I assume we’ll have the favor of the Empress, and be able to do just about whatever we please.”

“You expect we’ll be doing that together?”

“Absolutely.”


End file.
